Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae meets with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (local time). [AFP]
Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae meets with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (local time). [AFP]

Calls are growing in Japan for Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae to repair ties with China, after the US-China summit left many Japanese observers taken aback by Washington's warm reception of Beijing and what they saw as an unusually deferential posture toward China.

A nationwide telephone poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun on Saturday and Sunday asked whether Takaichi should make an effort to improve relations with China. Fifty-seven percent said she should, while 35 percent said she need not. Even among supporters of the Takaichi cabinet, those calling for improved ties outnumbered those opposed — 51 percent to 44 percent, a gap of just 7 percentage points. Among respondents who said they do not support the cabinet, the margin widened sharply: 69 percent said Takaichi should work to improve relations with China, against 25 percent who said she need not, a gap of more than two to one.

Since Japan-China relations soured last year, the Asahi Shimbun had not included a question about improving ties with Beijing in its polling. Shortly after relations began to fray in November last year, however, the paper did ask respondents whether they expected Takaichi to improve relations with China. At that time, opinion was evenly split, with 43 percent saying they had such expectations and 44 percent saying they did not.

News of the US-China summit also cast a shadow over assessments of the earlier Japan-US summit. Forty-four percent of respondents said they viewed the Japan-US summit held Tuesday positively, while 38 percent said they did not.

That positive rating was considerably lower than the one recorded after the Japan-US summit held shortly after Takaichi took office last October, when 67 percent viewed it positively and only 21 percent did not — a drop of 23 percentage points.

The more critical view of the latest Japan-US summit appears to reflect, in part, public frustration that Takaichi offered little pushback when the United States imposed sanctions on Tomoko Akane, the Japanese president of the International Criminal Court. Reports indicated that the Japanese cabinet, prioritizing its relationship with Washington, limited its response to expressing "regret" over the sanctions against Akane.


kate01@heraldcorp.com